Front loader arrangements are known. They generally comprise a mounting bracket or a mounting frame which is mounted on both sides of a carrier vehicle, for example a tractor, and a front loader with a loader arm which may be mounted on the mounting bracket on both sides of the carrier vehicle via a mounting mast corresponding to the corresponding mounting bracket. The mounting takes place via bearings on the mounting bracket, on which the mounting mast is placed and to which it is connected in a lockable manner. For parking or stopping the front loader, parking supports or loader supports are generally provided thereon, the parking supports or loader supports, for example, being able to be extended and positioned by a pivoting mechanism such that the front loader is securely supported when parked. As the mounting and dismantling of the front loader may be associated with a very complex operation, proposals have been put forward by which the mounting and/or dismantling process of the front loader could be increasingly automated and thus simplified.
Such a front loader arrangement is disclosed, for example, in EP 1 593 781 A2. A front loader is disclosed for a tractor with a mounting bracket, loader arm and loader support, wherein the loader support is pivotably mounted on a mounting mast of the front loader and by the pivoting movement which the mounting mast performs during the mounting and/or dismantling of the front loader on the mounting bracket, the loader support is either pivoted in toward the loader arm or pivoted away from the loader arm. Moreover, a locking of the mounted front loader is provided at the free end of the loader support in the pivoted-in state by fixing the loader support to a front part of the vehicle chassis so that by the locking of the loader support a fixing of the mounting mast is also achieved relative to the mounting bracket. A drawback is that firstly the locking takes place at a point on the vehicle chassis remote from the driver's cab and thus, in particular, the unlocking process, inasmuch as it is not automatically carried out, is time-consuming and secondly it is difficult or impossible for the driver to see, in particular, whether the locking has been carried out correctly. Furthermore, the locking is only suitable for an angle between the loader support and the mounting mast which is determined in the parked position. Therefore, further adjustments to the mounting mast have to be undertaken if, for example when changing the front loader tool, the geometric relations are altered, in particular the angle between the loader support and the mounting mast. This is achieved in this case by a complicated adjusting device which is arranged between the loader support and the mounting mast.
A comparable front loader arrangement is disclosed in EP 2 042 660 A2. A similarly complicated locking solution is also used here with the cited drawbacks.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,168,907 B2 also discloses a front loader arrangement of the aforementioned type but with a locking device which is directly in engagement with the mounting bracket and/or directly locks the connection between the mounting mast and the mounting bracket. The loader support used here, in contrast to the aforementioned examples, is configured rigidly in the form of a tubular frame mounted on the mounting mast, the tubular frame being lowered to the ground as soon as the mounting mast is inclined to the front relative to the mounting bracket when dismantling the front loader. This solution may be suitable for smaller front loader models with small, compact and relatively short loader supports. For larger and heavier front loader arrangements, if only for statical reasons, greater support forces and thus more stable loader supports, optionally also with different carrier profile structures and larger dimensions, are required. However, this does not alter the fact that for an operating position and for a parked position, specific geometric arrangements have to be maintained on the front loader which is why a pivotable arrangement of the loader support is often desirable, if not imperative.